By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : The Supreme Court Monday took suo motu notice of last Saturday’s police action in which more than 60 lawyers and journalists were injured and ordered the interior ministry to immediately suspend three top officials of the Islamabad administration.
“If these officials are not suspended, the court itself will take further action,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said in his order. The three officials are Islamabad’s deputy commissioner, inspector general of police and superintendent of police.
At the outset of the hearing, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah told the court that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had ordered an inquiry into the incident, prompting the chief justice to retort: “Forget about the committee, we have seen many such committees.”
Some 30 lawyers and 29 journalists were injured during clashes with the police outside the Election Commission office where nomination papers for the Oct 6 presidential election were being scrutinised. The lawyers were protesting President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election bid.
The prime minister and several members of his cabinet were present inside the Election Commission building even as the police were baton charging and firing teargas shells at the protesters.
The three-member apex court bench also invited civil society members to appear before it to give evidence of the police action.
The court also expressed its surprise that a member of the ruling coalition received minor injuries in the clashes and that the government had filed cases against top lawyers under the anti-terrorism act.